I have been interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic, despite EA's dickery and Bioware's seeming intent to annihilate everything Obsidian did in Knights of the Old Republic 2. Right now, the reasoning that kept me from buying was the subscription, and being unsure if Origin was required for the game.

But after watching this video playthrough, I cannot seem to understand how this game could in any way be fun to me.

A half hour slog through a one direction dungeon with no chance for exploration along an incredibly linear path, with enemies that stand in one place like their feet were glued to the ground, never changing tactics, never moving away, and getting slaughtered without so much as a scratch.

I'm thinking, "this is mmo combat?" How does this engage people? Running around in a circle flinging a lightsaber that does scratch damage while waiting for powers to cool down to attack the enemy that doesn't move or do anything to force you to move just doesn't seem appealing.

My main drive to even play the game is the story, since I am a Star Wars buff, but if I have to slog through mediocre combat in a dull environment for so long, I'm better off just recapping everything on Wookieepedia.

So, I'm not asking anyone to convince me otherwise, or to justify why you play the game, but I will ask you this. Is the game right for me, with this mindset?

It engages people because its starwars, and honestly the story elements of the game are actualy pretty good, however your absolutly right the combat is just plain boring, the exploration of the overworld isnt much greater either with what is essentialy instanced planets about one mile squared, i can't realy attest much about the game as whole since i only played it in beta but from what i gather its not realy any different now and since the beta left a bad impression on me, i have no disire to find out more.

Depends on the MMO, Dungeons n Dragons Online, for example, has a more hack n slash type of gameplay, and you have some abilities you can use, like trip or sunder. But yeah, that's likely to be a fairly cookie-cutter MMO dungeon crawl (haven't watched it) Some times there's little htings you have to watch for, like in Othrongroth for LotRO, you have to kill off the extra people before killing the main guy, while the main guy is trying to beat everyone up.

[edit] Though I'd like to add the exploration for LotRO is better, you can basically go anywhere at any level, it's just you're likely to die if you try. I'm also not sure whether it will let you into the Mines of Moria and beyond.

The issue is that, when making an MMO, companies seem to just look at the successful one (WOW) and try to duplicate it without really trying to figure out WHY people like it in the first place. They just copy the mechanics and hope for the best.

"People like WOW! WOW has hotkey controlled turned base combat and fetch quests! Therefore, they will like our MMO if it has that"

Although I liked WOW, I disliked almost all of the gameplay mechanics; so when a game tries to duplicate WOW, they're pretty much just taking all the parts of that game that I didn't like (the grinding, the lazy quest format, the dull professions, the absence of enemy AI, the static combat, etc.) and lazily making a game out of it. This is my experience with other MMOs anyway; I haven't tried SWTOR, but it seems like the same idea with StarWars.

It's sort of the like how so many shooters are trying to copy COD4 and failing at it.

"People like COD4! COD4 has regenerating health and chest high walls! Therefore, people will like our game if we add those!!"

"People love eggs! eggs have shells! if we put egg shells in all our recipes, people will love that to! derp derp"

With an MMO like WOW it was the extremely tight gameplay and the teamwork mechanic which made things entertaining. Might not be particularly entertaining to watch, but running a challenging dungeon with a small group of friends and having to deal with the various scenario you encountered was often incredibly entertaining. I have some fond memories of Karazhan, Tempests Keep and that less memorable underwater naga dungeon!

With SWTOR it's... eerr.... nothing. I hated the combat in that game, it was like the aforementioned WOW's combat only less fluid and with a Star Wars re-skin. From the few occasions I ran dungeons even with friends I also found the teamwork mechanics to be mediocre at best.

Now to be entirely fair I never got to level 50 and never ran a single 'raid encounter', plus it's entirely possible I'm just sick of that sort of hotbar gameplay overall, but I really didn't find it entertaining in the least.

... As for the story I wouldn't recommend playing SWTOR for that either, especially if you liked Kotor 2. It's not terrible and some of the early zones and class/faction specific opening area can be entertaining. But overall combined with the bleh gameplay and the monthly subscription fee I wouldn't recommend TOR.

It's not a terrible game, not really. It's just not really a good game either, at least in my opinion.

The Madman:
With an MMO like WOW it was the extremely tight gameplay and the teamwork mechanic which made things entertaining. Might not be particularly entertaining to watch, but running a challenging dungeon with a small group of friends and having to deal with the various scenario you encountered was often incredibly entertaining. I have some fond memories of Karazhan, Tempests Keep and that less memorable underwater naga dungeon!

This.

WoW's mechanics may look pretty simple on the surface, but when you're in a raid teamwork is paramount, when there's fire all over the boss room or the boss reflects your own damage back at you then what was once "simple" can become really hard.

I haven't played TOR but from what I hear the raid mechanics are nowhere near as complex.

Soviet Heavy:
Is the game right for me, with this mindset?

I don't think typical MMO combat ever comes across particularly well in videos. SWtOR's isn't exceptional, but it's not that bad either.

If you like Bioware games in general, and KotOR in particular, then you will almost certainly like SWtOR, for a month or two at least.

Yes that is MMO combat, about 20 years behind all other games because it needs to compensate for player masses and lag.
And because they need to keep you paying rent the content is stretched out over hundreds if not thousands of hours.

Is it for you? If you can shut your brain off and mash buttons then yes, otherwise no.

Isnt it always the social aspects with MMOS that engage people? I mean strip away that and you are playing at best a very average game.

I have played some solo and some with friends and guess which ones I stuck with the longest in the end though they ultimately fail to engage me beyond a certain point because they have no context to your actions (ok theres a quest description whoopdedo) and there is no end so usually when I hit level cap thats it for me I have finished and move on.